Miller leads U.S. skiers’ record showing

With Bode Miller leading the way, U.S. skiers dominated a World Cup race as never before. Miller finished second to Austria’s Michael Walchhofer on Saturday in the classic Saslong downhill at Val Gardena, Italy.

The New Hampshire skier was 0.38 of a second behind the winning time of 1 minute 50.57 seconds.

Miller led a record contingent of five Americans in the top 10. He also revived the defense of his overall World Cup title, moving up to ninth in the standings from 13th.

Marco Sullivan of Tahoe City, Calif., took fourth for the U.S.; Erik Fisher of Middleton, Idaho, was a career-best seventh; 2006 winner Steven Nyman of Provo, Utah, finished ninth; and TJ Lanning of Park City, Utah, placed 10th.

Miller split from the U.S. team before last season and now trains and races on his own, although he still wears the team uniform to conform with International Ski Federation rules.

Swiss teenager Lara Gut, 17, put on a breakthrough performance to win a super-G race for her first World Cup victory at St. Moritz, Switzerland, and American Lindsey Vonn maintained the overall lead despite skiing off course.

Skiing first on a course shortened by fog, the 17-year-old Gut finished in 57.38 seconds, 0.63 ahead of Switzerland’s Fabienne Suter.

Julia Mancuso was the top American, finishing 13th.

VOLLEYBALL

Penn State beats Stanford for title

Megan Hodge had 16 kills and Penn State ended its perfect season with a second straight NCAA women’s volleyball championship, sweeping Stanford, 25-20, 26-24, 25-23, at Omaha.

Penn State (38-0) won its NCAA-record 64th straight match since a September 2007 loss to Stanford.

Stanford (31-4), playing in the championship match for a record 14th time, became the first team to lose in the final three years in a row.

The Nittany Lions won an NCAA-record 111 straight sets before Nebraska pushed them to five sets in Thursday’s semifinals.

SOCCER

Friedel’s saves lift Aston Villa

Brad Friedel’s saves kept Aston Villa in the game and Lucas Neill’s own goal gave it a 1-0 victory at West Ham that lifted the team into third place in the Premier League.

Clint Dempsey scored Fulham’s third goal in a 3-0 victory over Middlesbrough and Sam Allardyce marked his return to club management with a 3-0 victory as next-to-last Blackburn ended a slump of 11 games without a win.

Defending champion Manchester United missed this weekend’s schedule of games to play in the Club World Cup competition in Japan.

ETC.

Westwood has two-shot lead

Lee Westwood shot a four-under-par 68 to take a two-stroke lead after the third round of the South African Open Championship at Paarl. Ernie Els slipped out of contention with a 77. . . . The International Olympic Committee could lose nearly $5 million in investments tied to Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff, who is accused in a $50-billion financial scam.

PASSINGS

Dock Ellis, 63; former pitcher

Dock Ellis, who infamously claimed he pitched a no-hitter for Pittsburgh under the influence of LSD and later fiercely spoke out against drug and alcohol addiction, died Friday. He was 63. Story, Section B.